That’s my dad. Dean Hankins. He spent a couple weeks with us, during with time I put him to work about half the time. We also managed to do some fun stuff, like go to the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center.
He pulled the chainplates for us and put some electrical muscle into cleaning them up. As he reached past the minor corrosion, he discovered…
All of the chainplates had corroded, some more deeply than others, and patches had been applied. The part circled in green? Perhaps you can make out the difference in the metal inside that area? Anyway, that’s how extensive the old repairs were. And does anyone remember the time when one of our chainplates broke? Yup – must have looked a lot like this right before that happened.
Rather than clean them up and put them back, we found ourselves in the unenviable position of needing to have new ones fabricated. If you need stainless steel fabrication work done, talk to Dex. He did great work, within the original time estimate, and at a better price than we were quoted elsewhere. Even at a better price, we were out $600, just like that. Ouch.
Meanwhile, I kept sanding…
And sanding…
Patching…
And fiberglassing…
And fiberglassing…
And fairing and sanding…
And Dad went to work on sanding the hatchway, an inverted arch that holds the hatch to the head.
It was great to have him around. He does great work and has a good problem-solving brain. And the weather, though somewhat gloomy, did give us one of these sunsets:
Who is that ugly old man you keep taking pictures of then saying it’s me?
I enjoyed staying in your palatial retreat and would have done more work—if you had twisted my arm a little harder.
After being there I’m even more blown away, not only by the type of work you’re willing to tackle on the boat, but by the quality of work you do. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised I don’t think I’ve seen anything you weren’t good at if you wanted to be.